LONDON: Lewis Hamilton may be savouring the fact that he is just a good drive away from winning the Formula One world championship in Brazil on Nov 2.
But, even as the 23-year-old Briton is gearing up to land his debut title, the first rumblings of discontent have broken out in the McLaren ranks.
The team's Finnish driver, Heikki Kovalainen, who has endured a difficult first season with McLaren, is reportedly unhappy at being treated as Hamilton's supporting act.
According to The Times, Kovalainen is frustrated that at almost every race this year, he has been given heavier fuel loads in qualifying than Hamilton.
That effectively prevents him from competing for race wins.
He has refrained from criticising the team, but he has told friends that if his interests are not better served next season, he may have to consider his position.
He was left to reflect on one of the most-troubled races of his 2008 F1 season following the Chinese Grand Prix last Sunday, when a litany of problems conspired to leave him out of contention on the day he turned 27.
Having qualified a disappointing fifth, a bright start saw him go bravely around the outside of Fernando Alonso, the man he replaced at McLaren, for fourth place.
But a small mistake later on in the opening lap enabled the Renault driver to pull alongside again and out-brake Kovalainen into the final corner.
From there on, the Hungarian Grand Prix winner ran fifth for most of the race, briefly rising to the lead by dint of running a long first stint and threatening to put the pressure back on Alonso again as the second round of pit-stops loomed.
But a puncture on lap 35 destroyed his charge and left him down at the rear of the field, before a loss of hydraulic pressure 15 laps later brought the curtain down prematurely on his efforts for the second race in succession.
McLaren revealed on Monday that his struggle in the opening lap was caused by the fitting of "mismatched tyres", which caused his car to understeer.
Team boss Ron Dennis explained the reason to retire Kovalainen: "After his first stop, a punctured tyre forced an unscheduled pit stop, before an air pressure problem with his engine caused us to retire him in order to avoid risking an engine failure."
This article was first published in The Straits Times on Oct 21, 2008.
